New Year Workshops

Mosaics and Gardening for Kids

The following 2 workshops are being run in the New Year,

Kids Gardening Workshop for 6 - 12yrs and a 2 Day  Mosaics Workshop.

Flyer images can be viewed here with all details enclosed.

Places are limited and given the popularity of the previous 2 are sure to fill fast.

These are both free courses hosted by Camden Council on the Camden Town Farm Community Garden site.

Thankyou Mayans

 

This Week

• Potatoes
• Some Christmas Recipes
• Feast or Famine
• Unusual Herbs
• Kids Gardening Workshops

Firstly can i add if you are reading this after 20.12 2012 your not dreaming, the world hasn't ended yet the Mayans may have got it wrong or been out with the dates, lets hope so anyway as there is a time differential between here and there.

On with the show anyway, and its only fitting that we start with a product the Mayans gave us (or the spanish nicked from them) 

The humble spud,

Christmas in the northerrn climes generally means turkey and all the trimmings, roast spuds etc, down under there are few extras, prawns, ham a few more salads typically, but one thing is for sure there are usually potatoes in one form or other.

If you have been watching our blog you will notice we planted some spuds a few months ago, 3 different varieties courtesy of The Big Spud at Robertson (one of our favourite local growers), now the tops have died and its is the perfect time to pull some of them up especially the Norland Reds that have matured first, having a large plot of these, we are in the perfect position to supply some great local people who do a fantastic job out in the community, namely Narellan Congregational Community Services, having planted some of these themselves it was only fair that we had the staff pull them up :) as you will see soon in a pic to be loaded, Heather and Mary donned their finest potato digging gear and pulled a few out this last week for their end of year christmas lunch, thanks ladies, this was accompanied by some zucchinis from the same plot. The gardeners have done a brilliant job of keeping water up to these in the lead up to christmas, so thanks to all concerned, especially Simon and Hazel. Looking for a recipe for roast spuds, try this one including Rosemary, perfect roast potatoes with rosemary, looking for a potato salad recipe, here you go with a whole bunch of them, potato salad recipes.

Tom-ar-to, Tom-ay(as in hay)-to

Yep tomatoes.

The cheapest exclusion bag.

If you got them in early enough and depending where you are by the time you read this you may well be eating them, hopefully you have avoided spraying them with copious amounts of chemicals to keep bugs that love them more than you do from eating them. If they are still green and the birds haven't found them and you are looking at spraying them, well STOP NOW, go down to the shops and buy yourself a packet of brown paper sandwich bags, if you happen to have "Tims Taurus" tomatoes growing your going to have to buy exclusion bags possibly.


Tigerella and Cherry tomatoes.

OK once home open the sandwich bags up and take one out, place it over the fruit (on the vine) or some of them, you may end up with a couple of bags per truss, scrunch up the top of the bag and then grab a clothes peg off the line, or the lawn if its like my place :) and put it over the scrunched up bit closing the bag off, this will stop the fruit fly getting in, the bags wont rot off in a hurry with rain and your fruit will continue to grow and ripen, if you have put them on a bit early you may find them bursting from the bags, in this case just re bag them with more bags, every few days check the bag for its contents. Your tomatoes will taste like they should or like they used too and not like some genetically modified orange or red shape full of mush. If you need exclusion bags, try the likes of Greenharvest, they sell a range and can be mail ordered, alternatively visit your nearest specialist garden supplier and ask for them, if enough people want them they will be sure to get them. The bags will not only keep out bugs but will trick the blackbirds into avoiding them, one thing they won't deter is Cockatoos, so good luck with keeping them out.

The other thing to consider seriously is companion planting with tomatoes, check the following link for a great comprehensive listing Permaculture news, breaking this down even further, some crops will encourage growth, some inhibit some improve flavour check the link Tomato Companions who list specific benefits or pitfalls. As this was typed in the blackbirds discovered my tomatoes that i hadn't quite got too with paper bags, so its blackbirds 2, me 5 :)

Christmas around the corner

This week as promised

• Rocket Science Workshop
• Christmas Recipes
• Drought proofing your garden
•  Zucchinis

Ok, first off the ranks, Rocket Science, lets just say its the edible kind of Rocquette so don't be afraid, Camden Council is running this in conjunction  with Camden Kids, preference will be given to children <6yrs old not engaged in formal childcare, enquiries can be made via 46455106, the workshops will run for an hour, adults must accompany children, its a free workshop and is on the 17th and 19th of December at Camden Community Garden on the Town Farm site. The workshops will be a chance for youngsters (and adults) to get their hands dirty, learn a little about the origins of their food as well as take home some uselful goodies.

First off your favourite Christmas recipes from around, and to save you looking everywhere and me typing endless mateial in try the next couple of links, Taste.com.au, Saveur.com, Christmas with maggie beer, these should keep you going for some time.

Summer has hit with a vengance out west, Camden recorded 37.3, and if your wondering do i need to drought proof my garden the following figures might help, courtesy of BOM.

Month	Ave Rainfall, mm	Max Temp, C	Ave Temp, C
August	3.4	29.3	19.5
September	21.8	33.9	23.4
October	34.2	34.9	25.4
November	30.0	37.3	26.3

Yacon, Yams and Peanuts

In the news this time something a bit different veggie wise

• Yacon
• Peanuts
• Yams (Oca - Oxalis Tuberosa)

Its great to see a multitude of crops appearing in the garden, very early on i planted Asparagus, it is now in its second year and won't really start cropping well till next year, although i did have a few spears this year.

Rosemary

Colin Mills who has done a massive amount in the garden, most noteworthy the Rosemary hedge, and we thank him for his work, planted amongst other things, Yacon, similar in form to Jerusalem artichokes, but it produces a tuber not unlike nashi pear in texture and taste, but physically resembling sweet potato. It also goes by the name Peruvian Ground Apple. You can find out more about Yacon seeds of change , its an old article but very relevant.



Peanuts



I found myself this year with peanuts emerging from my garden, these had ben leftovers from some i purchased last year in pots, (bit of a gimmic by the retailer) but nonetheless the few that i didnt harvest about of about a dozen have now resprouted and should produce better the the ones i bought, i also planted some at home, these have now germinated and will soon join the others.

Summer on its way

Garden update.



Potatoes Mulched



In the Update this week

• Potatoes and our 26 spotted freinds are back.
• Frogs in gardens.
• Herb Garden thriving.
• Welcome new gardeners.
• Punkin Chunkin

Late spring rains have meant vegetables are leaping out of the ground, the potato crop planted by Narellan Congregational Community Services and by the garden volunteers/members at the garden have been emerging over the last few weeks, and a few drops of rain has made the world of difference, mulch has been applied to the crop to help retain the moisture in the ground and once finished a manure crop will go in to replenish the soil with nutrients taken up by the potatoes. We also must mention the return of our little freind the 26 spotted lady bug, measures will be looked into as far as his control goes, but for now if you see them just

Eastern Dwarf Green Tree Frog
(we think)

Verreaux Tree Frog

As well as our regular visitors to the garden, namely all our gardeners, a few critters have been spotted, our regular magpies turn up for working bees and when ever they see someone digging, obviously anticipating a free feed, the kookaburras havent been seen of late but tawny frogmoths have late in the afternoon.
 The surprise of the month was a green tree frog, spotted by one of our gardeners, this little visitor is a great addition to the community garden as well as a Verreaux Tree Frog, keep your eyes peeled when visiting.

Scarecrows, Eco-topia, gardens clean up and more...

In the news this week:





Visitors on Eco-topia Tour at MCSL.


• Scarecrows
• Eco-topia Garden Tour of South West
• Narellan Rhythms Festival - Seedling Giveaway
• Gardening bee
• Potatoes
• Schools Visit
• Farmgate Tour
• Whats Growing.

Firstly a quick link to a story we picked up on this week and one that should concern everyone, its not a new story but a continuous one, the article refers to how aussie farmers are having to dump citrus due to a bumper season as they are litterally being squeezed out of the local market. Full Story



Dumped citrus. Image courtesy of Gary McCarten from The Weekly Times



Scarecrows move in, one could have been easily mistaken for thinking a crowd of visitors had moved into the community garden.

After a hugely successful scarecrow building workshop and then the scarecrows keeping the visitors amused at Narellan Rhythms Festival they have now taken up residence back at the Community Garden. As far as earning their keep, the local foxes seem to be oblivious to their prescence and the magpies dont seem to worry either although they have freaked out a few gardeners.

Anyway a welcome addition and the source of much amusement for locals and visitors alike, and a big thankyou to Plastic Surgeon Freya (check the link) for her help with the 50+ children that built them.

Scarecrows, Tomatoes, Potatoes and more

Scarecrow Workshop

Any one heading past Camden Community Garden over coming weeks may wonder whats happening with the large crowd of people in the garden.

Stop and take a closer look and you may notice little movement among the masses, unlike "Taste" held last weekend in glorious sunshine when masses of visitors flocked through the gardens and onto the Town Farm site for a culinary and auditory experience this time the visitors come in the form of Scarecrows.

The Scarecrows are being built as part of a workshop put on by the Community Gardens with the support of Camden Council and with the aid of Community Builders funding. The workshop is fully subscribed with more than 60 people attending over the 2 days. There are sure to be some great works come out of this, and they will be displayed at Narellan Rhythms Festival on 20th October before taking up residence back in the gardens.

Rise of the Scarecrows

With over 40 under 12s booked in for this years Scarecrow building workshop things were shaping up to be busy, day 1, (today saw 15 under 12s attend). Freya Jobbins, local artist was great, having being involved with the Scarecrows and Sculptures Workshop last year it was a pleasure to have Freyas involvement again this year, having a bit of an islands theme this year there were certainly some bright productions on day 1.

Day 2 on friday sees approximately 25 registered, with the current weather it is sure to be a great day for all, thanks to Camden Council, Community Builders, Freya Jobbins and all concerned. The Scarecrows will all be on display at Narellan Rhythms Festival on 20th October on Elyard St, Narellan, where amongst other things gardeners will be able to collect some free herb seedlings from the Community Garden stand.

Eco-topia at Randwick

Eco-topia in October 2012

Growing food • transforming place • creating culture
…celebrating community one lettuce at a time

5th ACFCGN National School & Community Garden Gathering
at Randwick Sustainability Education Hub

Wednesday 10 October - registration + welcome dinner
Thursday 11 & Friday 12 October - 2 day national gathering
Saturday 13 October - partner with Heaven & Earth Festival
Sunday 14 October - Tours of school and community gardens
The 5th National Gathering continues the tradition of bringing together people active in community gardening and in developing school gardens for education, to share their experience and to map a course into the future in which these initiatives play a leading role in developing our sustainable towns and cities.

Bookings for the various activities can be made through this link.

Month in Review

Boing, Boing, Boing

Spring is on the way, balmy days in the high 20s, clear skies, cherry blossoms bursting every where, magnolias on show, this pretty much sums up the last month.

So i may have skipped over the days sub zero earlier in the month, the snowfalls in the Blue Mountains, the return of the August winds, and those lovely possums hell bent on deforesting my garden of any spare magnolia buds and fresh growth, but that all comes with the change in seasons.

The past month has seen the gardens become a hive of activity, below is a summary of just some of the highlights.

• The Community Garden took out 1st place in their category in the local garden comp. Thanks to all concerned, volunteers, gardeners and supporters.
• Chester Hill Neighbourhood centre visited with 35 x 70-90yr old visitors, a great day was had by all concerned.
• Macarthur Farm Fresh Tour visited again with a dozen people on their regualr farmgate tour.
• The herb garden and the garden in general had a tidy up, see pic above, approx 15 gardeners all chipped in and lent a hand after an early breakfast supplied by the committee on site at 8am. (next one is the 15th of September)

Late Winter Blast

Camden Snap Frozen

If you woke up this morning early enough you would have been witness to the 4th day sub zero in August for Camden and a sizeable frost (-3.8), collectively through June and July we only had 2 days under the zero mark, i thought we were over the hump and getting warmer, obviously not, a bit of a worry if you were looking at getting those spring crops in, it might be worth just hanging off a bit or worth getting some cover sorted out for those susceptible to frost. If your garden is looking a bit dry the rainfall figs or lack thereof may be the reason, only 19mm of rain for Camden in July and 46mm in June.

Last year saw several gardeners lose Tomatoes, Zucchinis and Beans, looking for a good planting guide try the following link Gardenate.com note the different climatic zones.
You can also check out your local "big box" retailer or local garden centre and ask the experts.

individual rows of seeds germinating undercover

If you want to get an early start on those spring seedlings rather than buy established stock check out Greenharvest for a few ideas, similar items can be found across most retailers, and are well worth it, importantly use succession planting, if you put a whole packet of seeds in you will get everything at once, you want constant produce so by planting a few seeds every couple of weeks you will have produce cropping all the time. The other way around this is share the seedlings with your neighbours.

Breakfast in the Garden August 18th

Worlds largest Platypus

August Gardening Bee to kick off with big breakfast.

Waiting for breakfast no doubt

August 18th will see the regular gardening bees go to saturdays, and in line with a change of date, now the 3rd Saturday of each month we will be doing breakfast from 8am, everyone is welcome to attend, stay for as long as you want, catch up with the gardeners on the day, discuss the season ahead, pick those winter crops.

It will aslo be a good chance to discuss topics such as composting and worm farms, as well as see what has changed over the months prior.

Looking for some more great info, check out carbon offsetting the kids :)
maybe the car or grandkids even,

Like to find out some info on the success of the Uk allotments scheme, try this one.

Still in a bit of a quandry about what to plant for the coming season, look no further than eden seeds

Want to learn more about permaculture, and its philosophies, Earthcare, Peoplecare and Farishare follow this link.

Also don't forget the Camden Counci & Lexis Restaurant Garden Competition is on, with categories for

• Unit/Town House Garden
• New Garden
• Small Residential
• Large Residential
• Community Garden Plot
• Commercial / Industrial
• Most Creative
• Most Sustainable

Entries close wednesday August 1st, and can be found on the Council Website here.





The Power of Community

"Power Of Community" Film Screening

When: Wednesday 25th July

Where: Ironbark Room, Narellan Library, Cnr Elyard and Queen St, Narellan.

Time: 6.30pm - 8pm

RSVP: ASAP to secure spots, seats limited

Contact: Steve re screening on 46455022 to reserve spots

Entry: Gold Coin Donation

Light refreshments will be served

So you ask what is the "Power of Community" about !: in a nutshell - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

In 1990 when the Soviet Union fell Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

For more information on the Documentary itself click here

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.

Its winter, but no reason to hibernate.

Winter on Sydneys' fringes means cool crisp mornings the odd frost and beautiful clear skies, perfect weather for getting into the garden and preparing for spring.

The facts and figures the month of June thanks to BOM whos readings are taken across the river at the airport are:

• Total rainfall 88mm
• Max Temp 19.9C
• Min Temp 0.7C
• Mean Low 4.9C
• Mean High 16.7C

We are now over the hump so the days will start to get longer and before you know it the gardens will be a hive of activity after work once more.

Composting and Worms

Two different composting methods

Looking towards spring there is plenty to get on with, mulch your gardens to keep the moisture in, put manure crops in, want to know more, click on Green Harvest. Get some gold old manure into the garden, work in the compost, those leaves lying round put them into your garden. Want to find out more about composting click here for more info. You can also view our composters here.

Visitation Grows

News Update

It's not just Camden residents noticing our local community gardens anymore, as mentioned in an earlier post traffic has been coming from all corners of the globe and the gardens are becoming recognised internationally as well.

Just some of the group visiting on sunday.

This past week or so has seen several groups contact the Community Gardens, one such group was the Asian Women at Work Program who through their Community Worker coordinated a group visit with over 70 individuals in attendance, the group comprised mums, dads and kids and all enjoyed approximately 2hrs in the gardens, Publicity Officer and Secretary for the Gardens Stephen Cooper was on hand to give a talk to all concerned about the gardens and the site within which it is contained.

Farm Fresh Tours are also looking forward to having the Community Gardens feature in their program see Farm Fresh Tour for details of their next tour.

The coming week will also see a group visit from Holroyd Garden Club and their members, the Community Gardens Committee look forward and thank the groups who have already and who plan on enjoying the fruits of our labour.

Winter Harvest at Camden Community Garden.

No chunkin these punkins (search Punkin Chunkin)

Just some of the crew that turned up on sunday.

Its only a matter of time before above mentioned beloved american past time hits our shores but for now while pumpkins are in plentiful supply we will be eating them and sharing them amongst the gardeners, the picture right was the result of a harvest last weekend, and that giant golden object was a golden zucchini that escaped the pot and put on a few pounds before we found it.

The gardening bee was a massive success with all concerned leaving with pumpkins for home, over coming weekends more will be harvested and given out, thanks to everyone that participated, almost 20 volunteers turned up as well as visitors from across the Campbelltown LGA and Penrith.

Platypus spotted at Camden Town Farm

The Garden Grows

If you haven't wandered down Exeter Street in recent years you would have missed a growing community, and more accurately our growing Community Garden, if you wondered how the transformation has taken place below is something of a snapshot of before and after so far.

Camden Town Farm Community Garden May 2010

Camden Town Farm Community Garden April 2012

Here comes the Winter Chill

Shallots and beetroot

Noticed the mornings are getting cooler, extra doona on the bed on a morning, going to work with a few more clothes on, spare a thought for your plants outside. Check the link Camden Weather, April saw our average lowest temp sitting around 11.3C while mean highest was 23.6C. May so far is looking cooler with a pretty sharp dip so far with the lowest averaging just over 6C and the mean highest dipping marginally lower to just under 22C.

protection from frost

It may be time to start and try a bit of frost proofing, another month and the basil crop will be dead, if we are lucky we will get 6 weeks out of it, it may be time to try that Bunya Pine nut pesto here, thinking about putting potatoes in, it may be worth waiting now, speaking to a southern highlands grower (you will find him via bigspud.net) his tips were 100 days before the first frost and 3 weeks before the last frost. So if you have planted them recently, either hope for a late frost to get those new potatoes or baby poly tunnels and lots of mulch to keep them warm.

Taking The Camden Town Farm Community Garden to the world.

Camden on the World Stage

Camden Community Garden has hit the world stage, over the past 12 months this community garden has attracted visitors from across the globe and below is just a snippet of where our worldly visitors have come from:

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the USA.

Over the coming months we will keep you posted of other visitors viewing the gardens via the Blog :)

(Welcoming in April visitors from Finland, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Nigeria)

Now budding green thumbs, here is a bit of a quiz, we would like to hear the various uses you may have tried for the pictured produce. You may want to name them first :).

The left and right images have both been grown successfully in the Community Gardens here in Camden and with great success.

Continued ....

Autumn or is it Summer.

Autumn in Camden Community Garden, and an update


Hawk Moth Caterpillars

Summer became Winter and now Autumn has become Summer, it certainly has saved us watering over Summer but its played havoc in the gardens, feathered freinds have a veritable smorgasboard of bugs to choose from with these big fat juicy caterpillars turning up in thier droves to munch on sweet potatoes, we have sighted several forms of these mass defoliation critters, 2 forms are pictured, but the local magpies and butcher birds have finally found them.



Harlequin Beetles

Thankfully they seem to have limited their diet to sweet potatoes, although snails have had a field day on beans around the gardens.



Harlequin Beetles just seem to be everywhere and if we can find a biological control now would be the time to implement it.

All the rain and humidity through summer had a detrimental effect on the likes of pumpkin, cucumbers, and watermelons, powdery mildew was rampant and alot of plants ended up rotting off. We have managed to get a batch of Qld Blue pumpkin in the ground and these have taken off, we hope to have this cropped picked going into winter, sadly not in time for the Camden Show.

Miss Llewella Camden Town Farm Community Gardens

Camden Community Garden

The gardens would like to put a call out for volunteers, do you have a keen interest in gardening! or do you just like being outside, freinds and members of The Miss Llewella Davies Camden Town Farm Community Gardens meet up every month for a free BBQ, the 3rd sunday at 40 Exeter St Camden. The next one is this Sunday the 18th of March.

This is a chance for anyone interested from the general community to exchange ideas, (OK maybe pull a few weeds) see what everyone is growing and just have a general catch up. The gardens are wheelchair accessible and have toilet facilities on site, dogs need to be leashed and children supervised, the gardens are open sunrise to sunset for inspection, produce is available in the form of herbs at the produce markets every second saturday and funds from these go back to the gardens in one step towards making it more self funded.

Where does your food come from !!

Buy local and seasonal

Kenyan Broccoli



Looking to save some money on your next shopping bill, consider buying local and seasonal, one of the biggest costs savings that can be made is by buying whats in season and equally buying locally produced produce, take the following photos as prime examples of foreign grown, on a recent trip to the UK i decided to note the number of different countries that supply food to the UK, its probably not the best example to use as if you were to overlay a map of australia on europe you would probably cover half these countries, but when we grow the likes of bananas why should we buy them from central america, when we grow citrus why would we get them from spain or the US, it does come down to buying whats in season. and local where ever possible.

Kenyan Beans

Egyptian Beans

Kenyan Corn and Snow Peas.

Community Gardens meeting in Sydney

We’ve got lots to show!

Randwick Community Organic Garden will give us a brief outline of their Committee and operating structure, a tour of the garden, our Permaculture principles and layout, solar and battery system, chooks, biopod, a range of composting systems, water storage and distribution and aquaculture.
We also would like to talk about plans for a National Gathering in Sydney next October and set up an organising group.
Tell all your community garden friends to come along!

WHERE:

• Randwick Community Organic Garden, Paine Reserve, Botany Road, Randwick (northern side of the soccer field just off Meeks Street)
• Directions: We are located at the NORTHERN end of the reserve off BOTANY street and opposite MEEKS street. Rainbow st runs along the southern border. Keep your eyes peeled for the entry gate at the end of the park and drive in.
• Coming down Gardeners Rd. (from the Princes Highway at Tempe, you turn left at Dacyville park lights, first left after Houston street. Look out for Flower Power Nursery a kilometer back on the right and a Greek orthodox church about 200m out on the left. Turn left at Dacyville lights, into the big Kingsford roundabout, straight through to rainbow street, up the hill, past Amber tiles, past three streets on the left and turn left at the park, right at the end of the park opposite Meeks st. Coming down ANZAC Parade, just stay on it till you hit the big roundabout in Kingsford, turn left and follow the directions above past Amber tiles.
• if you are travelling by Public Transport go to http://www.131500.com.au to go to ‘Place of Interest’ = Paine Reserve, Randwick

What weed is that ? or is it ! and Harlequin Beetles

As time goes by i slowly become aware of a broader variety of plants growing in our Community Gardens,

Here are just a few of the plants we have in residence at the Community Gardens with some very interesting history and background reading to be found, note these aren't being grown by gardeners but aren't hard to miss.

Chenopodium album - also referred to as Fat Hen 

Datura stramonium - Thorn Apple - Jimson Weed

Portulaca - Purslane - Pig Weed

Rumex acetosella - Sheep sorrel - sour weed

Malva parviflora - Marshmallow

Amaranth

Harlequin Beetles

more Harlequin Bugs and their control

I hope you find the above links useful,

Happy Gardening

Images from the garden



Pictured below are just some of the goings on over recent weeks.

New signage near Camden Town Farm

New signage near Camden Vale Milk Company



 


Results of the working bee last week.  

 

Stormwater pipe ends finding a new home.

Nastursiums companion planted to scare those pests off.

 


"The Veggie Lady" Toni Salter and course participants.

  

Snake Beans,
 climbing over reo mesh and conduit.



Artichokes in the herb garden.